Dry(ish) January

[Listen to an audio version of this blog here.]

Tis the season of broken New Years’ resolutions (how are yours going?). Some people bought a gym membership they’ve already stopped using. Some people started and stopped a juice cleanse, and some of us vowed to stop engaging in traffic-induced altercations. My resolution was to drink less, so I stopped entirely for about 3 weeks. Unsurprisingly, I felt great. It wasn’t hard to stop drinking because I don’t drink that much anyway. However, even a glass of wine at night was leaving me feeling foggy the next morning. Not shocking, since alcohol is technically a toxic substance.

When trying to make a change, I find it easier to cut something out rather than add something new. Or, to cut something out and replace it with something of equal or greater value. So, instead of drinking wine in the evenings, I’d drink herbal tea or sparkling water. When dining out, I wouldn’t order a drink at all and easily save dozens of dollars. Drinking isn’t just bad for the body, it’s also expensive.

But, how bad is alcohol exactly?

Some scientists think that the main way alcohol causes health problems is by damaging DNA. When you drink alcohol, your body metabolizes it into a chemical called acetaldehyde that’s toxic to cells. Acetaldehyde is both damaging to DNA and prevents the body from repairing that…